ancient rome

If ever there were an author who could squeeze the most meaning out of the least amount of writing, it is Australian author David Malouf. In a spare 150 pages, Malouf tells the story of an exiled Roman poet living among “barbarians” who discovers a boy alone in the wilderness.  He convinces the tribe’s leader to capture the boy so that he can teach him to live as a man.  The task is fraught with attacks from wives and grandmothers who believe the boy is possessed by an animal spirit that will infect their families. Infection occurs, but of what kind . . . and why?

Malouf is exceptional at

Imperium is the first of a planned trilogy about the life and times of the great Roman orator and politician Cicero.  Imperium (“the power of life and death as vested by the state in an individual”) takes place from 79 B.C. to 64 B.C.  The story is narrated long after Cicero’s death by Tiro, Cicero’s slave, personal secretary, and confidant for 36 years.  Tiro developed a method of shorthand to record his master’s continuous flow of words and thoughts.  Tiro begins the story as he approaches 100 years of age and no longer fears repercussion for recording a tale of political intrigue.  He

Conspirata by Robert Harris is a work of historical fiction set in ancient Rome. A sequel to Harris’ novel Imperium, Conspirata continues the story of the life of the great orator and politician Cicero. The book begins in the year 63 B.C., when Cicero was elected consul of Rome. This was the year that he defeated the Cataline conspiracy, saving Rome from what would have been a ruinous civil war, and he appeared to be at the peak of prestige. But such things never last, especially when one has made an enemy of one of the greatest political minds of his generation: Julius Caesar.

Conspirata